Hey! The image that you are seeing on top of this chapter is an awesome cosplay of Alice in the Country of Hearts.

Top, from left to right: Alice, Blood, Vivaldi, Boris, Julius, Ace

Bottom, from left to right: Dee (or Dum I'm not sure) , Pierce (character from Alice in the Country of Clover) and Peter.

If you don't see it, that means it crashed again.

Now, back to the story.

To my surprise, there was no explosion of pain. No sword piercing through me. Maybe death was painless. I wondered if I would go to Hell, or Heaven. I didn't really do anything so evil it would get me to Hell, but nothing so good I would get to Heaven. Maybe I'll just remain in darkness forever, since my existence was so boring. The only exciting thing that happened to me was to get in the Country of Hearts. Even then, I didn't do anything except getting attacked and killed.

I opened my eyes, slowly; afraid of what would be in front of me. I really didn't like the idea of eternal torture in Hell.

I was in a small room, with a desk full of high piles of papers on it and a couple of bookshelves with colorful books. (Why am I even describing this? It is obvious that a bookshelf contains books.)

A beautiful violin melody was playing in the air. I always wanted to learn violin. But my parents never wanted, saying they didn't have time to bring me to the lessons because they had to take care of my brothers, and then I was too busy at University to try it.

I turned around on myself, examining every inch of my body. Not a scratch. I felt sick, as if someone had sucked my energy out of me. I tried passing through the green clover wallpapered wall like a ghost, with no success at all, to my deception. (Except if you count a bump on the forehead as a success)

I mean, how cool would it be to be a ghost? You can pass through literally anything, you scare the hell out of people for fun and you don't need to eat, sleep, or go to the washroom. And you can also spy everyone! I preferred to be a ghost than to go to Hell. (I think everyone does).

But sadly, I wasn't a spirit. And I didn't seem to be dead either.

My stomach rumbled. I grimaced. It had been a long time since I ate. But if you are dead, you aren't supposed to feel hunger, so... I was still alive! But how? And where was I? Maybe I fainted and someone saved me from Ace. I didn't feel really good.

I examined the options. The Amusement Park didn't look like this, neither did the Mansion. The Castle would probably have hearts everywhere, and I didn't see why the Queen or her minions would be so kind to save a stranger. That left only one choice: Julius. But I didn't see clocks anywhere. Strange, for a Clock Tower. 

I decided to look around to find my savior, whoever he (or she) was. I went out the little room, into a corridor, and almost lost my balance, dizzy. What was wrong with my body? I managed to continue. A faceless passed beside me, obviously in a hurry. I didn't recognize his clothes. I continued walking a bit, passing other faceless, all men, carrying piles of papers of various heights in every direction. They seemed to be searching for someone.

Suddenly, the violin music stopped. I heard two angry voices arguing, coming from a door in diagonal of me. I approached and listened.

"Give me back my violin! I need a break from all this work!" screamed a masculine voice. It seemed strangely familiar.

"No. You have to finish all your work before, not just a little bit like you did. You still have to complete all the papers in your office," responded the other man. He added something that I did not hear. The office? Had it been the room I was in? He sure had lots of work left to do if it was.

I slowly turned the door knob and took a deep breath. I had nothing to lose, so I opened the door and stepped in. The room was very similar to the office from before, except that there was no desk and more bookshelves (with books. What? You thought they were empty? Sorry to disappoint you), and a green couch.

Two men were arguing in front of me. I could only see the back of the first one and his silver hair, but the second was a man with bluish short hair and yellow eyes, in a pale blue-silver suit-coat, way calmer than the first one, holding a grey violin. He seemed to have a black tattoo of some kind on his neck. The suited man saw me, pointed at me:

"My lord..."he said in an alarmed voice.

The other man spun around. I gasped of surprise. The other man was no other than Nightmare.

I felt relieved... It was all a dream from the beginning! Ace had never tried to kill me!

I was so surprised I couldn't speak. I had not recognized Nightmare in normal clothes: black pants and a black and golden jacket with a white shirt, also with a black tie. He was still wearing his golden embroidered black eye patch and he looked as surprised as I was to see him.

"What are you doing here, Zoe?" he asked.

"What do you mean? You are the one who waked me up from that nightmare, right?" I answered, "I'm so happy you did. I can't believe I actually thought Ace would try to kill me." I played the realistic dream again in my head. Thanks to Nightmare it was finished. The dream had left me tired.

"What? He tried to kill you when you defended that woman?!" I had forgotten his thoughts-reading skills. He paused, lost in thoughts. "This is bad," he muttered after a couple of seconds, "It is normal that you're tired if you...You aren't supposed to be able to Travel now...."

"Lord Nightmare," started the other man, "Is it her?"

"Yes, Gray," continued the demon. What was going on?

At least I knew the man was called Gray and seemed to be working for Nightmare. 

"I wanted to wait more, but if Ace tells the Queen what happened, she'll get killed before she... I had thought the Cheshire Cat would be enough to protect her, but now... And the Mad Hatter knows the truth too..." He continued muttering.

"Nightmare? What's the problem?" I was getting scared. What did he mean, I'll get killed? Before what?

He smiled. "Don't worry about it. I'll take care of it." Take care of what? What was going on?!

Grey whispered something unintelligible to the demon.

"Yes, more powerful than I am. She passed over my blockage." Nightmare answered. "I have no other choice. I have to put my plan in action before it's too late and she dies...again."

I slowly accepted the truth: Nightmare had never waked me up. Somehow, I had gotten here by myself. But where was here? Couldn't Nightmare only live in dreams? And there was something the two men were hiding from me. I wanted answers. Now.

"Nightmare, tell me what is going on now."I said hardly.

He approached me and put a hand on my forehead. He smiled sadly.

"I hope you will forgive me one day. After all, I've done all of this only for you."

Then everything went black.

The next chapter coming in... a week!

Arggghhhh!

Don't stab me with a pen! *growls in pain* It hurts!

Okay, okay!

I accept to reveal the continuation!

I woke up in the glade from before. I felt sick. My head hurt like crazy. I sat and looked around me. There was dried blood on the grass behind me. What was I doing here again? I remembered the events from before: Ace wanted to kill the poor girl, so I defended her. Then... What had happened? An image of him knocking me out popped into my mind. Yes, that's it. He knocked me out. I had failed to protect the woman. Ace probably killed her and took her clock to Julius along with the one of her brothers and friends, while I was out.

Still... The events made sense, but I felt like something was missing. Something I had to remember. Pain exploded in my head. I groaned. It was probably a consequence of the shock. A sword is harder than you can think... Or is it? Thoughts and feelings were all mixed up in my brain. I had difficulty thinking strait.

I managed to get up. I took support on a tree trunk nearby and took deep breaths. I was feeling lightly better as time passed.

I guess my job was done here. No way am I going near Ace again. I'll have to report to Gowland that I'd let him go in the forest. I hoped Ace wouldn't go in the Park again.
I rested against the tree for a bit. I still had the impression that I was missing something. The feeling that you know you've forgotten something, but you don't know what. Weird. I sighed. My mind was messing with me. Great.

I suddenly remembered a tall beautiful man in a suit with blue short hair. Wait. Remembered? Where did I see him? Where did this image come from? My head hurt even more. I stopped thinking about the man and took deep breaths to shake off the nausea.

When I was feeling better, I started walking. It was still sunny outside. I had no idea where I was, but I tried to find an indication of some kind. I soon found a path, that I took, and I found myself in Town. Thank god it wasn't leading to the Castle or the Mansion. I had enough attacking for today, no need for a mad Hatter or a killer Queen. I found my way back to the Amusement Park, taking the usual paths.

When I arrived to the Park, I was so tired I could have slept on the spot. And I was so hungry I could have eaten like ten hamburgers.

Jack was waiting for me at the entrance. He waved and smiled. I came to meet him.

"Zoe! What took you so long?" asked the Cheshire Cat. He had grease spots on his shirt and his face, and his hair was even messier than before. I guess being a mechanic isn't easy.

"Well..." I hesitated. Did Jack know about Ace's job? It wasn't really a job, but I chose to call it like that.

I decided to tell him the truth. Nothing good comes from lies, and I was too tired to lie well.

"Ace told me the truth about the people of this world... How you don't really have a heart... The clocks and how they get repaired..." I was hesitant. Was it normal for me to know all this? Or was it a secret between the Country of Hearts' people?

Jack fell silent. His ears were down and he evaded my eyes. I continued:

"Then he tried to kill a woman who had destroyed some clocks. And I defended her. So Ace... Kinda knocked me out for a bit."

"He did WHAT?" Jack screamed. "Are you sure you're all right? That damn knight.... I knew that job was trouble! Are you sure you're okay?!"

"I'm fine, really," I said with a small smile that wanted to be reassuring.

"Let me check." He came closer and took my head in his hands.

"What are you- Ouch!" He had touched a sensible spot on my forehead.

"That's weird. You don't have any bump on your head, only a minor one on your forehead. Are you sure you didn't just faint? You don't have any big injury on you." He let me go and took my hand. "Come on, I'll get you some ice for that little bump."

No injury? But I sure felt sick and dizzy when I woke up. If he knocked me out with his sword, it would have left some marks... When I thought about my forehead, an image of me colliding with a wall popped into my mind. I shook my head. It didn't make any sense. I heard a small violin melody in my head. My thoughts were getting jumbled again. I felt dizzy.

I followed Jack to the infirmary, without meeting Gowland (thank god, Jack would have argued with him about my safety and such, and I wasn't in the mood for a dispute.) He got me some ice that I put on my small injury. I sat on a bed and he came beside me.

"So... Are you okay with the fact that..." Jack started. "I would understand if it's too much for you." He looked down. The fact that they weren't humans like me? I didn't really care. It was only their way of dying that was different. Living was the same for all. I was okay with it. It didn't change anything.

But I needed a pause from all this. Somewhere no one would try to kill me at every step I take out of the Park.

"Jack... I don't care if you are different. I knew that from the beginning, with the kitty part of you." I smiled and he timidly smiled back. "But I think I want to go home."